The Bernie Sanders-General Electric dispute over a plant visit

[Iamaartist]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/04/13/the-bernie-sanders-general-electric-dispute-over-a-plant-visit/



CNN’S JAKE TAPPER: “Jeff Immelt, the CEO of GE, criticized you. He said there’s a GE plant in Vermont, and you have never come by to visit.”

BERNIE SANDERS: “He’s not telling the truth.”

TAPPER: “You have been there?”

SANDERS: “Sure, years ago, in Rutland, Vermont, yes. There’s a large plant that makes airplane parts.”

In an interview with “The Daily News” on April 1, Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders said the manufacturing behemoth General Electric was “destroying the moral fabric” of the United States by moving jobs overseas. In response, GE chief executive Jeffrey Immelt wrote an opinion article in The Washington Post, defending the company. At one point he noted:

The senator has never bothered to stop by our aviation plant in Rutland, Vt. We’ve been investing heavily (some $100 million in recent years), hiring and turning out some of the world’s finest jet-engine components in Vermont since the 1950s. The plant employs more than 1,000 people who are very good at what they do. It’s a picture of first-rate jobs with high wages, advanced manufacturing in a vital industry — how things look when American workers are competing and winning — and Vermont’s junior senator is always welcome to come by for a tour

But when asked about this statement, Sanders flatly said it was wrong: “He’s not telling the truth.” Sanders insisted he had visited the aviation plant.

Such a sharp dispute sparked our interest. Has Sanders visited the Rutland factory of one of the biggest employers in Vermont?



Another link I could find

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ge-ceo-bernie-sanders-says-were-destroying-the-moral-fabric-of-america-hes-wrong/2016/04/06/8499bc8c-fc23-11e5-80e4-c381214de1a3_story.html?tid=a_inl









He never visited biggest employers in Vermont? And he is for workers ?????

[Thinkingabout]

1. Wanna bet he is gettng donations from GE, now his campaign would say the employees, double standard

here, if Hillary gets money from the employees the claim it is from the industry such as fossil fuels, when Sanders gets money from employees is it from the employees. How does that work?

[Iamaartist]

3. Donations ???

I wonder if he is getting donations from GE, I wish there was a way of looking that up ???
Good question how does that work?

[Thinkingabout]

14. Maybe the transcripts of conversations with lobbyists and executivites of GE.

[Iamaartist]

18. Thank-you very much.

I tried looking at that could not find anything...

[Thinkingabout]

24. Would bet he never recorded his conversations. We know he was influenced by NRA by his votes.

He wants to say Hillary is influenced by lobbyists because he is, he can judge others by his own action. It is getting time to tell the truth, this is abuse.

[pandr32]

15. I checked through OpenSecrets.org and didn't see it

Boeing is there, but the plant is GE. Oh well...no wonder he is trashing them...they don't support him I guess.

[Iamaartist]

19. Thank-you could not find anything .....

[Cha]

2. So he lied again? "blah blah blah years ago.. " They can check those things, bernie.

My limit is about up @ the WaPo for the month.. did they have proof @ the link?

Thank you, artist~

[Her Sister]

4. here...

Sanders was a member of the House of Representatives from 1991 to 2007, and mayor of Burlington from 1981 to 1989. But General Electric officials checked with the plant manager, who has been there 20 years, and a human resources manager, who has been at the plant 40 years. Neither could recall a Sanders visit.

plus

Jamie Stewart, until recently the head of the Rutland Economic Development Corp., was responsible for coordinating legislative visits to the businesses in the county between 2008 and 2015. “In that time, Senator Sanders never attended a function at the plant in Rutland,” Stewart said.

Stewart recalled that when he was upset at some remarks Sanders had made concerning a labor-management dispute at a local factory, he called Sanders’s office to warn that his rhetoric might inflame a delicate situation that could result in the plant’s closure. “I was told there was no one in his office who dealt with the business side,” he said.

[Cha]

6. Wow! thank you so much, HS! Unreal this guy.

Let's see.. what's a smilie for that?

Why doesn't he just say.. ".. he's right I haven't but maybe I should have.." Instead he calls the GE guy a liar and tries to make himself perfect.. which only leads to more Pinocchios.

[LisaM]

16. So his office was approached about a labor dispute

but blew it off. I don't get that in the least.

[Iamaartist]

20. Thank-you very much what next is he going to lie on......

[Iamaartist]

5. Cha

Another link I could find

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ge-ceo-bernie-sanders-says-were-destroying-the-moral-fabric-of-america-hes-wrong/2016/04/06/8499bc8c-fc23-11e5-80e4-c381214de1a3_story.html?tid=a_inl

[Cha]

7. Thank you, Iaaa.. I did see that one.

[LiberalFighter]

21. I have not liked GE since Welch

But Immelt appears to be making legitimate claims. He made a very well reasoned defense for how GE operates. That doesn't mean they can't improve.

But Sanders couldn't find time to check out a major employer in the state? That is politics 101.

[wysi]

28. Jack Welch pulled GE out of my home town

I'm from Pittsfield MA and GE was our largest employer. In the early 90s Welch closed the plant down and laid most everybody off (the ones who didn't move away). It's kind of a ghost town these days by comparison.

Welch can burn in hell for eternity and it still wouldn't be enough compensation for us. Sorry to be a bit OT.

[Historic NY]

8. Bernies winning more Pinocchios than delegates, lately

[Iamaartist]

9. LOL How true......

He should be in the world Guinness records for most lies ,

[Walk away]

10. Under Bernie's monarchy people won't need jobs. They will have everything given to them...

For FREE!!!!!!
So why should he bother learning about business or finance? Better just to break the up and take whatever $$$ is left and give it away at giant rallies!

[Iamaartist]

11. That's right who needs jobs when free LOL

[IamMab]

13. "Once we bankrupt your employer, then you get your 52 weeks of vacation." ~Bernie Sanders

Probably, at some point.

[IamMab]

12. He's a fraud, undeniably. Frankly, I'm not as shocked by revelations like this as I might have been.

Now I know Bernie is a lying con artist, and nothing about his past being exposed as deception is surprising any more.

[BlueMTexpat]

17. Bernie's memory seems to have some holes

in it.

From your first link:

As a factual matter, Sanders clearly has not visited the plant or taken a tour since he became senator nine years ago. Sanders bluntly accused Immelt of “not telling the truth,” saying he had visited the plant “years ago.” But that sidesteps the point that Immelt was making–that the company has invested tens of millions of dollars to modernize the facility and yet Sanders has not bothered to see the improvements. His posture stands in contrast to other members of the Vermont delegation who have been repeat visitors to the facility during Sanders’s senate tenure.

In bluntly dismissing Immelt’s statement as a lie, Sanders misleadingly led viewers to believe he had an open-and-shut case. But the reality is more complex.

Sanders misleadingly leading people to believe one thing when another is the case, hmm, where have we heard that before?

[Iamaartist]

22. Thank-you

Sanders misleading on everything he does

[LisaM]

23. "The reality is more complex". Yep, it always is.

This is why I've begun to intensely dislike Sanders. He only sees one reality: his. Anyone will conflate events over a long period of time. It's this ability to weave a narrative around experiences that makes we, as a species, remember those experiences, even if the details of a similar experience are applied to another one.

It's not the least bit unusual for him to say he's been to the plant, even if it was a different plant he went to, or even if he went so long ago that it's essentially touring a different plant, and to really believe that he has made this visit. This is how the human psyche operates.

The problem is that he lays into everyone else for everything they've ever said yet won't apply the same standards to himself. Geesh, haven't we all gathered together at family reunions and argued over what happened at so-and-so's wedding or who got sloshed at Thanksgiving 20 years ago, just to have someone intersperse, "wait! It was 22 years ago!" as if the story had now lost all value because one detail was off.

You just can't have it both ways.

[Fla Dem]

25. I think if and when the press starts digging into Bernie's life there will be many inconsistencies.

[dramafree2016]

26. It's amazing when Sanders is caught

Everyone who calls him out turns out to be a liar. He is the liar-BSing Sanders

[NurseJackie]

27. That sounds like the type of automatic nonthinking response that I've come to expect from Bernie.